Spinning toy



W. J. KERR SPINNING TOY May 5, 1931.

Filed O01); 4. 1929 Il u Patented May 5, 1931 rss eerst SPENNING TGY Application tiled Cctober 4, 182,9. Serial No. 39?,323.

AThe invention aims to provide an exceptionally simple and inexpensive, yet a very entertaining spinning toy, in which items of interest to children, forinstance pictures of birds, beasts, etc., carried by a lower disk are indiyidually visible through openings of an upper spinning disk While the latter is rorating".

`The construction disclosed is such that both disks initially rotate unitarily but upon substantial stopping of the lower disk and continued spinning of the upper disk, the items of Ainterest become visible, and vit is a further object` of the invention to provide advantageous self-acting means controlled by the speed of rotation of the toy, for substantially stoppingsaid lower disk to render the items visible, whereas prior to such stopping, it will be practically impossible to distinguish between the upper and lower disks, their joint appearance being that of one rotating member. t,

t With the foregoing in View, the invention resides in the novel subject matter hereinafter described and claimed, description being accomplished by reference to the laccompanying drawing. I

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a toy constructed in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but showing a slightly different construction.

The preferred form-of construction has been illustrated and While such construction will be speciiically explained, it is to be understood that within the scope of the invention as claimed, variations may be made.

The numeral 5 on the drawing denotes a vertical shaft having bearing centers 6 and' 7 at its upper and lower ends respectively.l A shallow horizontal casing 8 is provided with central openings 9 and 10 in its top and bottom respectively, and the shaft 5 passes through these openings, said sha-ft projecting both above and below said casing. Centrally secured to the casing top, around "the opening 9, is a tubular spinning knob 11 having a closed upper end 12 which rests upon the upper bearing center 6, so that by gripping this knob and twirling it between the thumb and fingers, the casing 8 may be rapidly rotated, it being of course understood that the shaft 5 passes loosely through the openings 9 and 10.

Centrally secured to the shaft 5 and disposed within the casing 3, is a disk 13 upon whose upper side, items of interest 14 are affixed, said items being preferably highly colored pictures of birds, animals, etc. The casing top 15 which.I like the bottom of said casing, is of disk form, is formed with a. plurality of circumferentially spaced openings 1G through which the items 14 are individually visible while the casino` top or disk -rotates above the disk 13, as will be hereinafter more fully described. 1

lf the casing 8 and the disk 13 be rotating unitarily, the items 1li cannotbe individually seen and the appearance upon looking down on the toy, is of a single body rotating. However, when rotation of the disk 13 is arrested and the casing 8 continues to rotate,v the items 14 can each be seen in its entirety, even though the opening 16 be rather rapidly travcling' over said items. Novel provision is made ,for arresting the rotation of the disk 13 to give the desired result. In 'the present showing, a base/17,' of circular outline is centrally lsecured to the shaft 5 below the casing 48, the lower side of said base being spaced upwardly to a slight extent from the bearing center 7 As long as the shaft 5 remains vertical, the base 17 does not touch the support ing surface upon which the toy is being spun and consequently the casing 8, shaft 5, disk 13 and base 17 may rotate unitarily at the samespeed, there being suthcient friction between the bearing portions 6 and 12 and between the shaft 5 and the casing top and bottom, to cause rotation of said casing to drive said shaft 5, thejdisk 13 and the base 17wheiA `the toyis initially spun rather rapidly. The

base 17 remains out of contact with the supporting surface, unless momentarily only,`a s

long as the toy is rather rapidly spinning. ,lVhen it dies down sufliciently however, tol

overcome the gyroscopic actioinit naturally tilts-.With the lesutieetthe bese, 1,7 Comes in Contact with the supporting surface, there- Cil by arresting rotation of the shaft 5 and the disk 13, with the result that the items 14 may be individually seen, while the casing 8 continues to spin. It will also be possible to view the items 14- if the base 17 be held in one hand and the casing 8 spun with the other hand, and this is true whether the speed of said casing be high or low.

In Fig. 2, the disk 1 3 is shown of strictly flat form, but this is not essential, as will be clear by reference to 3, illustrating a concavo-convex disk 13 upon which a relatively small rotatable disk 18 has been shown. This disk 18 may either rest loosely upon the disk 13a or may have a rotatable connection with the latter, said disk 1S being adapted to travel around the peripheral wall of the casing 8 when the toy is spun, thereby giving an additional pleasing' impression to the Child. It will of course be understood that the disk 13 may be of any desired sectional configuration, which is also true of the top and bottom of the casing. Preferably, the casing bottom is flat and the top is provided with concentric corrugations, all casing part-s exposed to view beingartistically decorated.

It will be seen from the foregoing that re- 'gardless of the extremely simple and ineX- pensive construction of the toy, it will be highly entertaining, it being very mysterious to the child, how the items le cannot be seen at iirst and later come clearly into view.

I claim 1. In a spinning toy, a lower horizontal disk having items of interest upon its upper face, an upper disk having openings over said items, means for rotatably mounting the two disks coaxially but allowing relative rotation thereof, said means being adapted to effect unitary rotation of the disks upon initial spinning of the toy, whereby said items will not then be individually visible, and means for retarding the rotation of said lower disk to render said items individually visible through the openings of said upper disk while the latter continues to spin.

2. In a spinning toy, a lower horizontal disk having items of interest upon its upper face, an upper disk having openings over said items, means for rotatably mounting the two disks coaXially but allowing relative rotation thereof, said means being adapted to effect unitary rotation of the disks upon initial spinning of the toy, whereby said items will not then be individually visible, and means controlled by the speed of rotation of the toy for retarding rotation of said lower disk upon predetermined decrease in said speed of rotation, thereby rendering said items individaully visible through the openings of said upper disk while the latter continues to spin.

3. A spinning toy comprising a vertical shaft having a bearing center at its lower end to restupon a support-ing surface, a horizontal disk scured to said shaft and having items of interest upon its upper face, a second disk above the first named disk having openings through which said items may be seen, a spinning knob secured to said second disk and rotatably connected with the upper end of said shaft, means holding the two disks and the shaft against appreciable relative movement other than rotation, and a laterally extending base secured to said shaft, the lower face of said base being spaced slightly upward from said bearing center for the purpose set forth.

4. A spinning toy comprising a central vertical shaft having bearing centers at its ends, a shallow casing having a central opening in its bottom through which said shaft passes loosely, a cent-ral tubular upstanding spinning knob secured to the casing top and having a closed upper end resting upon the upper bearing center of said shaft, a horizontal disk secured to said shaft within said casing and havingitems of interest upon its upper face, the casing top having openings through which said items are visible upon rotation of the casing with respect to said disk, and a base secured to said shaft under said casing, the lower side of said base being slightly above the low-er bearing center of said shaft to clear the supporting surface upon which the toy is spun as long as said shaft remains vertical, thereby allowing said casing, said disk, said shaft and said base to rotate unitarily until speed reduction allows tilting of the toy, said base being then adapted to contact with the supporting surface and retard rotation of the shaft and disk 'whereupon the aforesaid items become indi- 

